When You Do Not Know What The Hell You Are Doing Anymore
We are not Hansel, nor are we Gretel but so often our lives remind the German folklore tale by the Brothers Grimm.
Left with a fake promise, we wonder through the wild of the forest called life, searching for our way back home.
But sometimes we lose the sight of the right path and stumble upon the home of a witch, completely unprepared for the danger waiting for us there.
And so we think, we are lost but are we?
When you feel lost
I have always been fond of fairy tales but only when I became older did I realize their true value.
Is not it ironic?
And the story about Hansel and Gretel feels to me as a great analogy to what we are going to talk about today.
Do you remember when on the way into the forest, Hansel crumbled his piece of bread and threw all those crumbs on the path, hoping those will help them to find their way back home?
It was a smart and at the same time desperate move.
But do you remember what happened after that?
When they started looking for the crumbs, they found none, because birds had picked them all up.
And so, the evil plan of their stepmother worked. The children were lost in the forest and did not know how to find their way back home.
Is not it how adult life at times feels?
Trying to secure yourself with different crumbs of ideas and plans, at some point you still end up somewhat lost on your path.
And you do not know anymore:
What the hell are you doing
It is especially the case when you start on a new project or decide to become a freelancer or a blogger for that matter.
Any start up faces this phase as well.
And even big dreamers who seem to have all they need to keep successfully moving towards their dreams, at some point, find themselves disoriented and somewhat lost in their own ideas and plans.
Actually, we all go through this stage at some point in our lives.
Because the abundance of life and our freedom in choice has its benefits as well as its perils and we just have to learn balancing between those two.
When you do not know what the hell you are doing, what your first, usually instinctual, urge is?
To stop?
To give up?
To crawl back in your shell and stay there for good?
If after discovering the crumbs gone, Hansel and Gretel gave up, lost hope and just sat there doing nothing, not only their dream to come back home would die but themselves.
But they did not do that.
Despite hunger and fear, they kept walking.
And this is exactly what you should do once you feel like you do not know what the hell you are doing anymore.
When your strategy stops working
The more you do something the clearer it should become to you.
Only sometimes, this theory does not work this way.
Sometimes, the more you do something the more lost and confused you start feeling about it.
And there is a reason why it happens.
Obsession keeps our eyes wide opened but all we do is trying to look far in the future losing the sight of what is around us.
In most cases, future is not something you can foresee. It is meant to stay hidden from us.
But as stubborn as we can be we want to know it long before it is even decided.
We want to control it.
And we want to rely on it.
The problem is, this strategy almost never works.
Because while being obsessed with future you never live the present, and the present is where real things happen.
This strategy of looking into future before doing anything in the present might be lethal for your dream.
It can blur your vision on the opportunities that are here, right in front of you.
And sooner or later, this strategy will turn into a thief that will rob you of so many beautiful things and experiences in your life.
If you feel stuck and not knowing where to go, more likely you are using this strategy right now.
They say you have to dream big.
But what they forget to say is that dreaming is not the same as living in empty realm of hope for future.
It is a wrong mindset.
How to change the lethal strategy?
Admit, that you are doing does not work
There are no wrong dreams.
If you feel that your dream, business, new endeavors of any kind are not going anywhere from the dead point of nothing happening, you should not ignore this fact.
It might feel like a failure.
It might feel like your dream is just not meant to come true.
It might even feel like you have done a huge mistake by trusting in your dream.
But it is not what is really happening here.
You are stuck in the dead zone because what you are doing simply does not work.
Your strategy does not work.
In no way does it define the quality or reliability of your dream.
Take your time to learn more about the experience of other people.
Unless you are trying to grow a second head, your dream is more likely had been once someone else’s dream too.
And connecting to people who have already done it is a great way to learn more about new strategies and why your strategy simply does not work.
If you want to be a blogger, it makes sense to connect with the works of other bloggers or even the bloggers themselves.
We are lucky.
These days, you can do it via social media, emails, or even by just watching certain YouTube channels where people reveal their journey to their dreams for free.
Be open to learn from others
One of the hugest mistakes I have done a few times myself is when you think you have already figured it all out.
Bring your focus back to your life
When I only decided to become a writer, I fell in the trap of obsession which made me to exclude everything out of my life but writing.
I thought the more I write the closer I get to my dream of becoming a published writer.
Oh man, I could not have been more wrong about that.
Bring your focus back to your life.
Meet new friends.
Have fun because life should be lived and not put on hold while you are trying to figure out how to make your dream to come true.
Do not think that you will come back to living your life once you succeed on this or that.
This mindset in the end will make you unhappy and in no way will it help you on your journey to your dream.
It should be natural, step after step.
Just like Hansel and Gretel who kept walking through the forest even though they had no idea where they were going.
Right, right, they stumbled upon the house of a witch.
And yes, they were almost eaten.
But life is a risky business.
And no matter how hard and hopeless you might feel, remember, that even Hansel and Gretel who were just kids left to the mercy of the wild forest, no matter how many times they felt lost and desperate, managed to return home.
